The Year Was 1791

1791 was a busy year in American history…..the beginnings of the Whiskey Rebellion and the ratification of the Bill of Rights.

First let’s go to the Whiskey Rebellion……only a few short years after the end of the Revolution and we are at it again……

What started as a tax in 1791 led to the Western Insurrection, or better known as the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, when protesters used violence and intimidation to prevent federal officials from collecting.

On March 3, 1791, Congress instituted a tax on distilled liquors to help pay off the debt from the American Revolution. Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton had initiated a program to increase central government power, and the tax was to fund his policy of assuming war debt of those states who failed to pay.

During this time the western part of Pennsylvania was separated from the east by the Allegheny Mountains. Farmers, the majority of the population, found there was a limited market for their grain locally, and it was difficult to transport the grain to the east for sale. So instead, farmers converted their grain to whiskey, which made it easier to transport and more marketable.

I agree with you. I have read that theory before somewhere. There was no money for a standing army. If you look at the other references to the militia in the constitution they set forth how congress can call up the militia and in another place talk about the state authority to appoint the officers. They knew at the time the militia was there army and went to great lengths to state how it would be organized and controlled and how it could be used.

The government needed money but instead of taxing the wealthy in New York and New England Hamilton drew a plan to tax the farmers who could least afford to pay it. Sounds familiar today.